Submarines In WWI

By Isabel Maletich

Submarines In WWI

By Isabel Maletich

What is a Submarine?

A Submarine is a warship that can be completely submerged underwater for a long period of time.

The typical submarine would be on average, 200' long.

They were originally intended for activity along the Coast.

Typically had two three or four-caliber millimeter guns.

Majority would be fit with torpedoes.

Usually had two propellers to power the submarine.

What is a U-Boat?

A submarine built by the Germans.

On average, they were 315' long, and have two cargo departments.

In addition to torpedoes, they typically had 48 vertical mines to drop.

Typically had 150 three or four-caliber millimeter guns.

This is a U-Boat

In this particular picture, you can see a submarine in the right-hand corner of the picture, and it is going after a merchant ship. Multiple times during WWI, Germany called unrestricted warfare, where they could attack any ship on the sea, whether it was a warship, or simply carrying merchants across the Atlantic Ocean. Because of this unrestricted warfare, it was the main cause of us coming into WWI.

This is a Diagram of a British Submarine.

In this particular picture you can see what a British Submarine looked like in the beginning of the war. They originally had eight of them, and you can see where they held their torpedoes, and where they held their periscopes.

This is a Picture of Inside a Submarine

As you can see from this picture, the quarters were pretty small and cramped and there is not very much room to walk around. In here, they are simply maintaining the ship and keeping it up and running.

This is a U-Boat

In this particular picture, you can see a submarine in the right-hand corner of the picture, and it is going after a merchant ship. Multiple times during WWI, Germany called unrestricted warfare, where they could attack any ship on the sea, whether it was a warship, or simply carrying merchants across the Atlantic Ocean. Because of this unrestricted warfare, it was the main cause of us coming into WWI.

This is a Diagram of a British Submarine.

In this particular picture you can see what a British Submarine looked like in the beginning of the war. They originally had eight of them, and you can see where they held their torpedoes, and where they held their periscopes.

This is a Picture of Inside a Submarine

As you can see from this picture, the quarters were pretty small and cramped and there is not very much room to walk around. In here, they are simply maintaining the ship and keeping it up and running.

How Were Submarines and U-Boats Used in WWI?

The U-Boats would mainly serve in combat roles later in the War.

British R-Class Submarines would created to sink the German U-Boats (some like to think of it as the anti-submarine submarine)

The R-Class would also listen into enemy submarines because they were small and fast, so they could make a quick escape.

All submarines would also serve as scouts to the warships on the surface.

The submarines would make it easier to attack enemy ships.

How Did Submarines Change Warfare?

It made attacking enemy ships much easier.

It caused many ordinary people to become injured and killed due to unrestricted warfare.

It proved that a submarine could operate 3000 miles away from the home base.

It eventually caused the U.S. to become involved in WWI.

Were There Any Peace-Time Applications During WWI?

Overall, during the war, there was no use of peace of the submarines. Today we use them for many different peaceful things, but we did not have any real peace with submarines.

How Did This Change History Itself?

Submarines have definitely changed history to date because of a few major reasons:

1. If we did not have submarines in WWI, then Germany wouldn't of had U-boats.

2. But also, Germany had periods of unrestricted warfare, if they did not have submarines, then they may not of had unrestricted warfare.

3. Because of the unrestricted warfare, and attacking ships with Americans on them, thus killing the Americans, and making Woodrow Wilson angry.

4. This unrestricted warfare eventually made us join the war, which the unrestricted warfare was caused by the submarines.